1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to guard rails in general and in particular to a method and apparatus for forming guard rail around the perimeter of a roof.
2. Description of Related Art
In many industries and fields, workers are required to work at heights which pose a safety risk. In particular, workers on roofs, such as for performing maintenance or roof covering replacements are required to spend large amounts of time on such roofs. Traditionally, houses do not include safety railings or other type of barrier to prevent a person thereon from falling off in the event of a slip or trip. This puts them at significant risk of falls from the roof possibly resulting in significant possible injury. Additionally, many homes have sloped roofs to aid in snow and rain removal therefrom which increases the risk of a fall for a worker thereon.
Conventionally, workers who are required to work on roofs, have been required to wear a harness and rope to prevent them from falling off of a roof should they slip or trip. Disadvantageously, such ropes create additional tripping hazards for the workers on the roofs who must also prevent themselves from tripping on the extra ropes. Such ropes may also be prone to catching or snagging on nails or other roofing materials. This may be particularly so in worksites where the roof is being replaced and therefore the existing roofing material must first be removed exposing many nails or fasteners on the roof surface. Workers may also find such ropes difficult and time consuming to maneuver around the chimneys vent and smoke stacks that often extend from the top of many roofs.
Other solutions have been to provide scaffolding around the edge of the roof. Such scaffolding, however is time consuming to set up and expensive to buy or rent, preventing their widespread use on smaller projects.
Previous attempts to reduce the risk of a worker falling from a roof have been to provide safety rails around the edge of the roof. As such rails are not commonly built into the roof during initial construction, it is necessary to secure the rail through the roofing material when required for such an existing roof. Disadvantageously, such devices may need to be removed in order to access the roofing material thereunder, such as for replacement and or repair. The railing must also then be removed again in order to apply new roofing material to that region. This requirement to have no railing for times when the edge of the roof is being worked on reduces the effectiveness of these railing systems.